Page 3315 - Week 10 - Thursday, 19 October 2006
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There is no dissembling here. You cannot say it is an operational matter. Minister, you are responsible. It is not the Pontius Pilate approach: something happened; I wash my hands because I was not there. You are responsible.
Admittedly he received a sad legacy from the former minister, but that is no excuse for this minister, who said, “We are light years ahead in preparation.” Did he seek information before he made that statement, or did he just make it up? Once you have had your briefings from the officials, once you have read the incoming minister’s briefs—and I hope you read the incoming briefs, minister—you are responsible. I have seen incoming ministers’ briefs. I would be certain that the brief had a section on the age of the fleet and the capital upgrade required.
This all comes to light because of a memo that was circulated to captains and volunteers of the RFS called “Second response vehicles”. We have listened to all that the minister has said. And he did it again today in question time when he said, for instance, that we did nothing when we were in office with regard to replacing vehicles.
I will outline very quickly that we replaced half of the fleet. He asked us to remember—in effect misleading the Assembly—that we did not have a strategic bushfire management plan. We did. There it is—the bushfire fuel management plan 1998. He has misled the Assembly on that. Not only does he have a strategic bushfire management plan that has not been upgraded—
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I wish to raise a point of order. If Mr Smyth wants to claim that I misled the Assembly, he knows he must do that by a substantive motion.
MR SMYTH: This is a substantive motion.
Mr Corbell: No, it is not mentioned in the censure motion.
MR SMYTH: It was.
Mr Corbell: The opposition is censuring me. There is nothing before me in writing on this issue. As far as I am aware, there is no reference in that substantive motion to misleading the Assembly. Until I see the words, I think it is a bit difficult to—
MR SPEAKER: I understand it is about to be circulated, Mr Corbell.
MR SMYTH: Is it acceptable? This is a substantive motion.
MR SPEAKER: We will press on.
MR SMYTH: The minister said in question time that we did not have a strategic bushfire management plan. It is not true. We did. There it is. Indeed, unlike his strategic bushfire management plan, which the government has refused to update, we updated ours in 2000 and 2002, to make sure it was up to date.
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